Uhuru Design is Founding Maker in Heirloom Design

BROOKLYN, N.Y., April 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Uhuru Design, the Brooklyn-based furniture designer and manufacturer and pioneer of the New American Design movement, has announced a partnership with One Workplace, the largest North American workplace provider, to launch Heirloom Design—the industry's first platform aimed at celebrating the journey and story of heirloom-quality furniture that is sustainably passed from one office generation and workplace to the next.

"Uhuru Design continues to take pride in crafting products rooted in a narrative design process built to last," said Leo Lucisano, CEO of Uhuru Design. "With Heirloom Design, people will be able to shop a marketplace for products with a defined lifecycle and a plan for re-use, minimizing the creation of waste, pollution, and carbon emissions."

Leo went on to say: "We know natural materials deliver better long-term performance. Movements like Heirloom have measurable carbon-reducing impacts and will forever shape the contract furniture marketplace, giving end-users, designers, specifiers, and manufacturers new choices when it comes to meeting their design and sustainability goals. We will fulfill the vision of keeping furniture out of landfills alongside One Workplace and other future manufacturing and distribution partners, while we continue to tell amazing stories through museum, heirloom-quality furniture."

Heirloom Design seeks to celebrate the New American Design furniture movement. Heirloom pieces will be tagged with a brass QR Code plate so that customers and end-users can participate in the historical provenance of the piece. Included in the history will be a catalog of details on materials used in construction, craftsperson and maker information, dates of initial construction, and other pertinent data that results in a meaningful story about each piece, creating a mindful relationship between people and design.

Uhuru's line of Heirloom products includes ancillary, conference tables, and work surfaces that will include their sustainability narrative:

• Conference: Inspired by a minimal, residential aesthetic, power-ready Conference Tables are designed with the contract environment in mind.
• Meeting Tables: Trilo Round Table is a multi-functional, break-out table that explores minimal and deliberate forms; Kong Coffee Table is created from a solid wood top in a walnut finish, set on a steel frame.
• Lounge Chairs: Bilge Lounge Chair is made from reclaimed bourbon barrel staves from Kentucky and recycled leaf springs from New York City fire trucks; DK Chair: The DK Collection provides luxurious comfort in a minimalist design, crafted from steel and seamlessly connected to curved walnut arms.
• Work Surfaces: Able to fit on most any manufacturers' benching and desking solutions, refinished surfaces made from wood allow every user in an office to be a part of the Heirloom program.

The Heirloom Design Opportunity

The office furniture market approached $20 billion in 2020, while the domestic online consumer market accelerated to $46 billion. This drove 11.8 million tons of furniture to the landfill, accounting for 5 percent of domestic waste. Uhuru Design and One Workplace saw a need for a change in behavior initiated by technology companies; Heirloom was created as a means to offer viable workplace furniture solutions to end-users focused on carbon neutral initiatives.

"Improving the environment tomorrow requires informed decisions today," said Dave Bryant, a founding partner of Heirloom Design and a vice president at One Workplace. "We see this partnership with Uhuru as a way to commit to sustainability while reinvesting in the New American Design movement. It's a way to provide our customers with a more thoughtful supply chain and materiality promise."

About Uhuru Design

Uhuru Design is a furniture design firm based in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Established in 2004 by graduates from the Rhode Island School of Design, Uhuru focuses on designing and building custom high-end furniture with reclaimed materials that placed Uhuru at the forefront of New American Design. With over a decade and a half of experience, Uhuru has grown to include a contract division specializing in commercial furniture, building brand-specific products, and a direct-to-consumer line under the Propr™ brand. Uhuru is fiercely committed to sustainability and thoughtful sourcing as an integral part of its design and manufacturing and is proud of its work on a vast range of furniture installations and interior environments alongside leading designers and global brands. For more information, visit https://www.uhurudesign.com/.

About New American Design

In the early 2000s, in maker design centers from Brooklyn to California, New American Design was a minimalist reaction against mass-market furniture and design culture. New American Design is now taking shape as the next great design movement of the 21st-century post-mid-century modern. New American Design is storytelling through a creative process, adapting the modern aesthetic and minimalist materials through craft and innovation to deliver an emotional connection to the objects we live on and work from. New American Design is built on the tenets of narrative design, sustainability, and materiality. It references traditional design processes and leverages the imperfectness and personality of materials and objects to create character and nostalgia. Timeless In Form; For The Future, Beyond The Landfill.

About One Workplace

One Workplace creates new ways of working by helping companies bring their brands and cultures to life. As the West Coast's leading interior solutions provider, One Workplace uses the power of bringing construction, technology, furniture, and services under one roof to create better spaces, build powerful brands, and empower stronger cultures from the inside out. For more information, visit www.oneworkplace.com.

Media Contact:
Sawyer Lipari
Lambert & Co.
(313) 309-9500
[email protected]

SOURCE Uhuru Design

Related Links

https://www.uhurudesign.com